November 15, 2021 - A growing number of businesses, like Freddie’s Flowers in London, UK, are making most of their deliveries by e-cargo bikes to combat urban congestion, parking restrictions, and the shortage of commercial drivers reports the Financial Times.
Leading the way are massive express parcel operators such as DHL, specialist low-carbon delivery companies, and other mainstream logistics companies that are all exploiting the flexibility, and speed of environment-friendly cargo bikes for some of their operations.
Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital now uses Pedal & Post, a local cycle courier company, to rush samples to the railway station to be taken to London for processing.
Sweco, a Swedish-based consultancy, says this mode of transport has particular strengths in handling last-mile deliveries of perishable goods, just-in-time items, and high-value goods.
“It’s a direct competitor to electric vans,” says Mark Philpotts, a cycling design specialist for Sweco. “You can stop where you like. You can service buildings more easily. You can take the bike into awkward locations — and you’ve not got the parking issues or the loading issues.”
In 2018 Freddie’s Flowers turned to making the most difficult deliveries via Pedal Me, a bike-taxi service that also carries substantial amounts of cargo. “We were having issues delivering to central London, especially to offices and to apartment buildings, because our vans deliver from about 2am and access was near-impossible at that time,” recalled Alice Scobie, head of UK deliveries.
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